Apoloniusz Tajner reacts to Dawid Kubacki's disaster. The painful truth

Apoloniusz Tajner reacts to the disaster of Dawid Kubacki

Ski jumping

A good performance from Piotr Żyła and a disaster from Dawid Kubacki—qualifications for the first competition of the Four Hills Tournament were tough for Poles. "Something is happening," says former PZN president Apoloniusz Tajner. He does not hide that the problem is broader.

Dawid Kubacki's (Photo: Grzegorz Momot / PAP)

Piotr Żyła's fourteenth place is the best result for Polish jumpers at the start of the Four Hills Tournament. Austrians dominated, taking the top five spots. The Polish team played only secondary roles. Jakub Wolny (25th), Aleksander Zniszczoł (38th), and Paweł Wąsek (42nd) also advanced to tomorrow's competition, while Dawid Kubacki fell short with a poor jump, placing 53rd. Even Apoloniusz Tajner, who usually finds reasons for optimism, did not hold back his comments this time.

"What can I say? Something had to have gone wrong for this to look so weak. Last season we knew they started too tired, it was overtraining. This year, everything seemed solid, and now... I don't know why it went this way. Because it looks simply bad," says the former PZN president.

Looking at the overall performance of Polish ski jumpers, even Żyła's better result raises questions, as he missed a large part of preparations due to injury and now is the best.

"True, but older athletes should work this way and even plan breaks. They can't train as much anymore; they need to do just enough. Better too little than too much. Żyła is one thing, and the younger ones are another," says Tajner. In fact, on Friday in Switzerland, even 52-year-old Noriaki Kasai defeated all Poles, and Saturday was only slightly better, as the best of our team, Maciej Kot, was merely 18th behind the World Cup.

"It also looks weak, and they all train under the same system. Something is going on. However, I don’t know the reasons; I can't assess how they trained. I can only draw conclusions from their jumps' observations. Previous World Cup competitions looked solid. It seemed like they were just one step away from the top level, but now the tournament has started, and the difference between the best and our athletes is very clear," Tajner states.

According to him, the hope is only in time. "The tournament will end, and another phase of the World Cup will begin; the boys can have their moments. In a month and a half, the world championships are to take place, and much can change in that time, although the reality is that it looks rather poor right now," Tajner admits.

Kamil Stoch made the right decision. What’s next for Kubacki?

A separate subject is the poor jumps from Kubacki. Before the tournament, trainers hesitated whether to take him or Kamil Stoch, who is also in poor form. The latter decided that he would rather stay and train.

"I'm glad Kamil opted out of the competition because it didn't make sense. It would be a waste of time if he isn’t in top form. This was a very good move because it's better to rest and calmly take a dozen jumps over a few training units and then return for the next World Cup or other competitions," says Tajner.

"Regarding Dawid... The qualifications were quite objective once the wind calmed down. There's no question that he faced poor conditions," he added.